War Wizards and you
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Due to some recent questions regarding this, I'm going to give a general outline of what a war wizard is.
-First and foremost, they are agents of the crown. They answer to the king, and the king alone, outside of their own hierarchy.
-Their role in the realm is to defend the crown, be it from internal threats (rebellious nobles, powerful cults, ect) and external threats (fighting on the front lines during wars against other nations, invading orc hordes, ect).
-They don't answer to anyone outside the order save the king, but that does not mean that everyone answers to them as a result. To use Hardcastle as an easy example, neither the war wizard nor the noble can tell each other what to do. The War Wizard can petition the crown to take action against hardcastle, but the kings decision would rely on several factors including but not limited to the strength of the case, the influence of the noble, and the influence of the war wizard. Meaning, a new war wizard (all of our pcs) would have a tough time beating hardcastle in such a fashion without a rock solid case that took lots of time and effort to build up.
-The militia is similar to the nobles in the fact that they don't take orders from war wizards. More often then not, the war wizards would have no reason to give the militia orders in the first place, the two do not overlap, but the limitations of our game do tend to lead to situations of them working more often then is actually realistic. In the case of them butting heads over an issue, again, the war wizards can not order the militia to do this or that. What they can do, however, is ask the king to take away the charter that gives the militia its authority, ending the militia all together. Again, it would have to be a great case, but it is feasible. As a result, the militia would likely try to avoid outright conflict with a war wizard unless it was something they really felt strongly about.
-retainers/bretheren are where things get a bit different. Again, they are not beholden to follow a war wizards orders, no one is; But they can get arrested. How much of the benefit their npc leaders get trickles down to them really depends on how much their npc leaders like them individually, since they would have to be willing to fight for their servant.
-independent adventures can be arrested at any time by a war wizard, and need to wait for a trial to receive any kind of fair treatment. Don't let that freak you out though, we are very careful about who we let be war wizards and the minute we feel someone is abusing their power they will get smushed.
-As for how to play one properly should you ever get approved and make it through the battlemage phase, War wizards are diplomats, spies, and warriors rolled into one. Their agenda is whats best for the crown, not a crusade for good or law. That means that, to use hardcastle as an example again, if hardcastle revolted against the crown and the best way to thwart his rebellion was to support the murderous scumbags of old town that are fighting hardcastles forces from the inside, thats exactly what a War Wizard would do no matter how he felt about the people he was supporting.
Hope this helps clear things up somewhat.
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Don't the brethren answer specifically to War Wizards? I kind of thought that was their entire schtick.
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I was under the impression that they were under a charter granted by the king through the war wizards, but I will double check and edit as necessary.
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Don't the brethren answer specifically to War Wizards? I kind of thought that was their entire schtick.
War Wizards manage their funding. If the Brethren do things that their don't like, the coin vanishes, but it doesn't mean they can't find other sources. As well as, War Wizards can request their charter to be revoked.
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I have seen War Wizards overturn Judge Johan, and nobles. The noble powerless over the word of the War Wizard. War Wizards can overturn an order given by a noble, and have absolute authority. It is frowned upon, but they have the power. At least, that's what I saw and what I learned as a Lord and Purple Dragon Knight.
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There are a multitude of situations that can come up that end up going against what I said. The highest ranking war wizards have more sway with the king and therefore more authority to make decisions on their own, for example. But if I covered every possible situation, if that is even possible, it would take a book. So, I did my best to instead focus on how it impacts the world in the game.
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Nobles avoid confilcts with war wizards if they have ANY brains at all. Nobles who don't tend to find their nobility stripped.
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Brethren are supposed to take a certain amount of direction from WW, particularly since WW control the gold being supplied to them from the Crown. Its more of a WW's being their Identify-Friend-or-Foe(IFF) system for them and making sure the Grandmaster doesn't buy a 78'000 gp antique table for his lounge with the gold they are giving him on behalf of the crown.
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WW can arrest anybody aside from the King. And dealing with disloyal/criminal nobles is almost half of their job. Pissing off a WW as a noble is a like sending hatemail to the IRS/CIA/FBI/Secret Service. You're -asking- to be audited and investigated, and if you complain, people would be like "You said WHAT do the War Wizards? Man, you asking for it."
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Thanks for the input.
For those of you who realize what I was trying to do, make the functionality of pc war wizards a bit clearer, I stand by my post and will answer any questions you have which is why I put this in general discussion in the first place. For those of you who just want to take the time to share what your vision of a war wizard is, have at it I guess. Just don't blame me if it leads to confusion ig lol.
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Thanks for that CF.
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Just play a WW how you want and deal with consequences from NPCs and PCs IG.